


Flower Girl

by TBCat



Series: Naruto Femslash Week 2018 [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: F/F, Female Uzumaki Naruto, Naruto Femslash Week 2018, Trans Character, Unrequited Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-29
Updated: 2018-08-29
Packaged: 2019-07-03 23:50:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15829449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TBCat/pseuds/TBCat
Summary: Naruto is raised by the Flowers of Red Street, and she knows that she is a flower herself.So when she meets Sakura at school, she falls in love with this unknown, unexpected flower.





	Flower Girl

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry. This is more trans!Naru than it is femslash, but its what the prompt inspired in me. _/\\('~')/\\_
> 
> Naruto Femslash Week 2018  
> Prompt: Genin  
> Pairing: Uzumaki Naruto (fem)/Haruno Sakura (unrequited)

Naruto grows up at the knees of flowers. They are strong, beautiful, and sharp. More importantly, they thrive in between the concrete sidewalks of Konoha’s backstreets, where the light is too grimy for the men and wives and children to recognize Naruto’s buttercup yellow hair and bluebell eyes.

Amaririsu sprouts at the corner of the market and tea districts, where she hides from the crowds behind an old, red paper umbrella. She shyly peaks out at the goods sold from the market district storefronts for prices none of them could ever afford, and is always seen by some swaggering young man. Then she retreats to the nearby alley, and when she is followed she sinks into a silent seiza and opens her mouth wide on a gasp. Naruto learns how to blush on command and smile with her eyes from following her, and sometimes they share a cup ramen after Amaririsu washes off. 

Shion is bold, and stands tall in her own perfumed parlor. She keeps the lights dimmed low, and her eyes glow with an entrancing purple. Every thursday, the same old man comes to see her, and they retreat to the upper parlor after a tea ceremony filled with darting glances and trailing touches. Naruto doesn’t like waiting to see her on Friday, but she always remembers the purple marks that smatter Shion’s skin and how Shion is too tired to pour her own tea. 

Tsubaki has as many new treats for Naruto as she has outfits. Everyday, she goes on a new shopping trip, but every couple of months Tsubaki sleeps on the floor of Naruto’s flat instead while shopping for a new man. Naruto likes bargaining and playing with Tsubaki, and they ignore the scowls the other gets outside of their own little street. 

Kānēshon is old and hunched, but every couple of weeks she visits Naruto to complain about the other girls. Naruto only has the time it takes Kānēshon to hobble up Naruto’s stairs to scramble and clean, but she never says anything about Naruto’s flat. Flowers need time to grow, but Kānēshon is long past growing. Now she just helps the girls on Red Street find room around each other. 

The Yuri girls share a stand alone house at the end of the street. Their lamps are always lit, and at least one of them is always awake, so Naruto likes to hide in the crowds of their front room and help serve drinks to men too drunk to care. 

When Iruka finally shows the class how to channel chakra and form hand signs, Naruto doesn’t sleep for a week. On Friday, she waits in Shion’s back parlor with eyes purple from exhaustion instead of makeup. 

This time, Shion finds the energy to pour the tea when she finally creeps in at noon. Naruto tries to watch her closely for any stiffness, but she just curls on to the couch next to Naruto and pats her leg reassuringly. 

Naruto grins like Tsubaki taught her and shows off her own jutsu. By the end of the day Naruto has shown all the flower girls.

“Now, I’m a flower, too,” she says as she falls asleep on Kānēshon’s ratty old couch. 

Naruto always thought all the Flowers lived on Red Street, but then she doesn’t graduate, starts a new year with Iruka, and meets Sakura. Or maybe Sakura was always in the class, like Shikamaru, and Kiba, and Sasuke-baka, but that is the year that Sakura blossoms into a real flower. 

Naruto tells her every morning that she is beautiful, but she never stops to talk and look at Naruto the way only other Flower Girls always have. 

Naruto tries to invite her out to ramen, or share a bento like Amaririsu always will, but Sakura must not understand how to be shy. She always tosses her long, petal-pink hair and declines Naruto’s offer. Sakura doesn’t like when Naruto waits for her, tries to help her with pouring tea after the kunoichi lessons that Naruto is never included in, or when Naruto invites her to use the flat whenever she wants. 

Sakura isn’t like any flower Naruto has ever met. 

Naruto tells Kānēshon about Sakura, but she doesn’t have any advice. She just tells Naruto that it might be a crush. However, even Naruto knows that the way the Yuri sisters breathe seduction only works for clients and not friends or lovers. 

Naruto keeps trying; none of the flower girls have ever known how to stop. 

Naruto only has one more chance for graduation and can’t manage a consistent henge because Naruto’s chakra wants to jump to Naruto’s shape as a flower girl. 

So, Naruto shows Iruka, but Naruto isn’t surprised that the school teachers still can’t help Naruto learn anything. When Naruto asks around Red Street, even Tsubaki doesn’t know how to help; chakra is a shinobi secret. Naruto keeps working at it, but now that Sakura has seen that Naruto is a real Flower Girl in class, Naruto has something to look forward to. 

Sakura quickly dashes that hope, like so many before, and Naruto is confused again. The Flower Girls have always loved each other, but Sakura acts like she hates Naruto’s Sexy Jutsu. 

Iruka is special. Naruto loves the Flower Girls, but Iruka is special.

The Flower Girls love, support, help, and accept each other. Iruka chooses Naruto, and suddenly Naruto understands the other Flower Girls so much more. 

Naruto suddenly gets Tsubaki’s brand new tears each time a guy leaves her, and Shion’s attachment to Thursday even though she has admirers on every other day, too, and Kānēshon’s bittersweet laments about her dead shinobi brother, and the Yuri girls’ dedication to maintaining their deceased father’s shrine. 

Naruto vows to always protect his special people. A flower has thorns and can regrow, but people just break and die. 

Then, Naruto is a genin. 

Everything is harder and easier as a genin. Everything is simpler and more confusing as a genin. Naruto breaks down Kānēshon’s door to cry after meeting Haku. Flowers aren’t supposed to be boys. Flowers aren’t supposed to die.

When Naruto asks Kānēshon, she tells Naruto the truth. Everything dies; flowers, and flower girls, and even Kānēshon herself one day will all die. Kānēshon tells Naruto that boys and girls are just clothes people put on, and for flowers they are just petals used to attract the bees. 

Kānēshon tells Naruto that she is still a flower girl if she wants, and that only a flower knows themselves. 

Naruto realizes that she loves Sakura, even if she isn’t a flower, but Sakura loves Sasuke, who definitely isn’t a flower. Sasuke is just a cactus, full of water that could be shared, but covered in hateful spikes. 

Naruto loves Sakura, who loves Sasuke, who just hates the world. Naruto learned love from the roots of flowers, and she promises Sakura that she will save Sasuke even if it means pruning every one of his thorns and replanting him as a new cutting entirely. 


End file.
